No, the UFOs aren’t aliens. But the White House is learning more about the spy balloon
The three UFOs shot down over the United States and Canada over the past three days are not aliens, the White House says.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in Monday’s press briefing that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial activity involved with the three unidentified aerial objects shot down between Friday and Sunday. Two of the objects were shot down after flying over Alaska — one over the Arctic Ocean and one over the Yukon Territory in Canada. The third was shot down Sunday over Lake Huron.
The administration is still trying to learn more about the objects.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the administration will have to collect the objects, which have come down over icy terrain and, in the case of the one over Lake Huron, over deep Canadian waters. He said officials were able to determine that the objects didn’t have humans in them, they couldn’t move independently, and they were not giving off communication signals.
The government isn’t sure if the three objects it shot down had surveillance capabilities, but Kirby said they were a threat to commercial aircraft. The government was able to find them because NORAD adjusted its signals to be able to detect more aerial objects.
They don’t know who owns the objects — but they ruled out aliens.
“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these craft, period,” Kirby said. “I don’t think there’s any more that needs to be said there.”
Much more is known about the Chinese spy balloon shot down early this month over the Atlantic Ocean near South Carolina.
READ MORE: Pentagon: China’s conducted spy balloon program for years
With the spy balloon, the government knew what it was, where it was going and what information it was trying to collect. They were able to watch it as it slowed down and sped up to pick up information about military sites. Kirby said it was too big to shoot over land and that they were able to collect information about the balloon as it flew over the country.
A recovery team was able to take some of the balloon fabric off the surface of the Atlantic Ocean the day that the U.S. shot down the balloon. Divers were out over the weekend and were able to recover some of the structure of the balloon and its electronics in the ocean. Kirby said there is about 45 feet of water where the balloon landed.
He said he’s not sure when all of the balloon would be collected.
“It could take a long time, given the sea state and weather conditions and the degree to which we have to protect the safety of the divers,” Kirby said.
Divers were not able to go out Monday because the water was too rough.
This story was originally published February 13, 2023 at 4:10 PM with the headline "No, the UFOs aren’t aliens. But the White House is learning more about the spy balloon."
